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The Value of a Life: New Evidence of the Relationship Between Changes in Occupational Fatalities and Wages of Hourly Workers, 1992 to 1999
Author(s) -
Jennings William P.,
Kinderman Albert
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of risk and insurance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1539-6975
pISSN - 0022-4367
DOI - 10.1111/1539-6975.t01-1-00064
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , value of life , value (mathematics) , government (linguistics) , economics , willingness to pay , demographic economics , occupational safety and health , empirical evidence , labour economics , business , medicine , sociology , social science , linguistics , philosophy , epistemology , machine learning , computer science , microeconomics , pathology
The Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies use the willingness‐to‐pay concept in labor market studies to estimate the value of a life for evaluating regulatory policies and projects. This study uses new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period 1992–1999 on industry injury and illness rates and fatality rates to examine the relationship between changes in occupational mortality rates and in hourly wages. The analysis finds that there is no statistically significant evidence that changes in occupational mortality are associated with changes in wages and, thus, there is no empirical basis for using the willingness‐to‐pay concept as a reliable method for valuing a life or evaluating regulatory policies.